


Come Find Me After You Find Yourself

by Petrichor (Lieu)



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Green Arrow and the Canaries (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, dinahsiren - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:28:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22523272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lieu/pseuds/Petrichor
Summary: Dinah looks for Laurel to say goodbye. Laurel contemplates her future.(Missing scene from the series finale of Arrow 8x10)
Relationships: Dinah Drake & Earth-2 Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake/Earth-2 Laurel Lance, Dinah Drake/Laurel Lance
Comments: 7
Kudos: 76





	Come Find Me After You Find Yourself

**Author's Note:**

> Testing the waters after not having written for a while. Dinahsiren is my new muse and they absolutely need more content, crossing my fingers for a series pick-up! I hope you enjoy!

Laurel wasn’t sure how she’d found herself in the bunker again after Oliver’s funeral. She’d grown uncharacteristically attached; it made her long for her own bunker back on Earth-2, a place of refuge of her own creation and design.  
She’d once learned from Felicity that the bunker had been affectionately (and ridiculously) referred to by the rest of the team as the ‘Arrowcave’, and she snorted at the memory. 

Truly, she couldn’t believe how much these people had grown on her, enough for her to feel nostalgic about their time spent here, and how there would likely never be anything like it again. She wouldn’t have a team of her own anymore, not entirely, and the thought made Laurel feel somewhat lonely. 

She frowned. The elevator doors slid open behind her and a relived-looking Dinah stepped through. 

“I’ve been looking for you; I didn’t expect this is where you’d be,” Dinah said, leaning up against the railing with Laurel. “We’d already closed up shop before the funeral.” 

Laurel gave a hum of acknowledgment. 

“You seem better now, though. Less like your first instinct is to drown out all the problems of the world with a bottle of Spirytus.” 

“Honestly anything would be better than that god-awful vodka we all downed earlier.” 

The two women chuckled. A bubble of contentment began to form despite all that had happened, shielding them in the bunker from the outside world, and it made Laurel’s walls slip just a bit. She gripped the smooth metal bar just at her hip to steady herself. 

“I talked to Quintin...about what I was feeling.” 

“Progress,” Dinah stated. 

“And it helped. A lot, actually.” 

“So I suppose you weren’t ‘fine, like always.’” she said gently. 

Laurel picked at her manicure; an old habit from old times. Dinah wasn’t promoting her to explain herself, she knew, it was more of an _‘I told you so, now stop pushing your feelings away because you have people that care about you and want to help you’_ , but nonetheless she felt she owed the brunette an explanation. “Laurel...this Earth’s Laurel...didn’t come back like everyone else. And I felt like that was because of me- that it was my fault.” 

“Laurel-“ 

The blonde shook her head. “She deserved to come back, Dinah. To be here with her family.” 

“I don’t disagree with you. But it isn’t your fault, you have to know that. When Oliver rewrote the universe none of us had any control over what would have happened.” 

Laurel didn’t look fully convinced. Even with the reassurances or her friends and family, she suspected she’d always feel this shard of guilt that maybe, if she wasn’t here, their Laurel could have been. 

“But...if it’s any consolation, I’m relieved that you’re still here.” Dinah said.

The air turned heavy and Laurel found herself unable to find the words to respond to Dinah’s quiet confession. So she deflected. “Quintin also said that you were _‘ghosting’_ him...care to explain why you’ve left my father on read?” Laurel turned her head to Dinah with a smirk. 

The brunette let out a genuine laugh at that, and Laurel felt her smirk melt into a fond smile. “You're not taking the promotion.” 

Dinah gave a nod of her head in confirmation and Laurel tried not to notice the way her curls bounced. “I said this to Diggle and Rene but...a city with no crime has no need for a chief of police. Or really even a force at all. Unless of course, my passion is filing paperwork away.” she added with a huff. 

Laurel pretended to look astonished. “You mean it’s not?” 

Dinah gave her a small smile. “You know, I could always use a partner in crime,” she waited for Laurel to give some kind of reaction before adding, “birds of a feather flock together.” 

“With that tagline? Highly tempting,” Laurel said. 

Dinah pressed her fist to Laurel’s sternum in a mock scolding. 

“But I think I'll stick around for a while. I just got Quintin...my dad back. I’m not gonna waste this second chance.” Laurel thought seriously for a moment. “Well, third, if you count that time with the Monitor.” 

“I understand,” said Dinah, crossing her arms with a genuine smile. 

The two women held the other’s gaze for a moment. 

Laurel slipped her hands into her back pockets, raising her brow at the former captain expectantly. “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Aren't you supposed to give me a hug, or something? A soppy heartfelt goodbye before we dramatically depart? You guys should know this mushy hero script like the back of your hand by now, I mean come _on._ ” 

Dinah narrowed her eyes accusingly even as she stepped forward to delicately wrap her arms around the blonde. “Not sure if anyone informed you, but, hug is usually a two-person effort…”

Laurel gave an eye roll at the comment, immediately prepared to retort, when the comment died down in her throat. 

She swallowed. 

Dinah was so very warm, embracing her so intimately, with a hand caressing the back of her head and the other laid against the small of her back, that it actually made Laurel feel a bit embarrassed even as she awkwardly reached her hands around in an attempt to return the hug. 

Which in retrospect, may have been a mistake, because she could have sworn on Oliver’s grave that she heard the smallest intake of breath in her ear as if Dinah hadn’t expected the gesture to be reciprocated and her heart began to pound annoyingly. 

She feared that Dinah could hear it. 

Never the one to blush, Laurel refused to feel the heat rising at the top of her cheekbones and moved to step away, her hands shifting to her friend’s hips to give herself some leverage, but Dinah hadn’t let her go. 

It was too close, too much, and her senses felt overloaded. 

Laurel panicked for a fraction of a second before Dinah whispered a quiet “Not yet..” into her ear, a hint of desperation slipping into her voice.  
And, suddenly, it was as if her newfound anxieties began to melt and Laurel slowly relaxed into the embrace despite her better judgment. And okay, maybe she had been deprived of a normal amount of human contact for a while now. But it felt really nice, and she knew it would be a while, if at all, before she’d ever see Dinah and her stupid pink nail polish and unrealistically perfect curls again. 

The brunette also smelled ridiculously good, she noted, like some frou-frou girly perfume Laurel would never admit she liked and god forbid she’d ever purchase.  
She blamed the isolation of the quiet bunker which should have felt suffocating but instead felt strangely comforting, and her walls began to slip again.  
She had half a mind to abandon all sense of dignity and just bury her nose in Dinah’s hair, forcing her mind to commit the scent to memory, when the elevator doors slid open on the other side of the bunker. 

Over Dinah’s shoulder, Laurel could see Mia stepping out and offering them an uncharacteristically shy wave. “Sorry to interrupt.” 

As they dutifully broke apart, Laurel felt strangely cold. The bunker seemed larger and lonelier than ever. 

“Sara’s going to drop me off in a few minutes, but- I wanted to say goodbye. For now, at least.” Mia made her way over to the other two women. 

Laurel kept her eyes trained on Mia but Dinah’s presence in her peripheral completely overtook her attention. 

“For now?” Dinah questioned, a smile and a curious look on her face. Laurel couldn’t pretend Mia’s comment didn’t pique her interest as well. 

“If we’re going to the future, at least give me time to do a little research and expand my wardrobe.” Laurel commented. 

Mia seemed to recognize her mistake immediately and shook her head. “Ah- sorry, I’m doing a terrible job so far at keeping my mouth shut about this whole time travel thing…” 

Dinah chuckled good-naturedly at the girl. 

“But regardless, I’ll miss you both. Keep kicking ass, though I know you will. And...thank you for helping me find my way. I know my dad would feel relieved to know the two of you’ve got my back.” 

Dinah reached forward to grasp at the girl’s upper arms fondly, not expecting the words but appreciating them nonetheless. “Always, Mia.” 

Laurel couldn’t help but give a smile at the two. She knew that there must have been something Mia wasn't letting on to, but she suspected that time must have had all the answers, and she wondered what the future may actually hold for them all. 

Mia had left without much else said, but the emotion of it all hung heavy in the bunker, and Dinah must’ve taken it as her cue to depart as well. Her eyes seemed to search the blonde’s face for something Laurel couldn’t quite understand. They stood for a while, like a tether straining more with every indication that Dinah would soon be leaving her. 

“Take care of yourself, Laurel.” 

Laurel willed herself to hold her tongue, not trusting that the words that threatened to escape would match Dinah’s noble farewell but instead, she feared, a pathetic little plea for her friend to stay. 

Laurel bit the inside of her cheek harshly as Dinah ran a hand down her arm, stopping to catch her wrist and hold it gently for a moment before slipping away.  
She watched as Dinah left, stepping back to give a half-smile before leaving for good. 

Laurel stayed in place long after the heels of Dinah’s shoes stopped echoing throughout the empty bunker, and she frowned at the floor, disliking the heaviness in her chest and rubbing at it in irritation.

She didn’t know when the hole in her heart would go away. 

All she could do was hope that it wouldn’t be too long.

**Author's Note:**

> I just feel like Dinah gives really good hugs


End file.
